Drawing Together and Pondering God’s Way - Purity 1521

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I'm M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch us on YouTube. Good morning. Today's photo of a dark black road and the darkened silhouette of the roadside forest trees under an ethereal early morning blue sky comes to us from yours truly as I captured the scene while walking along Waite Road on Sunday, December 1st. Well, it's Thursday, and I share this pathway photo as a visual reminder, uh, or encouragement to get on or to stay on the pathway of Christian discipleship. This morning I am rejoicing after another evening of Christian fellowship and accountability at Celebrate Freedom, where I was greatly encouraged by a newcomer's survival and some solid testimonies of others who have made Celebrate Freedom their lifeline and a new spiritual home. It turns out that showing up to give people a place to be real about their lives and to draw close to God can really make a difference. Our Christian Recovery and Discipleship support group may never have stunning attendance records because even Christians can be wary of being vulnerable and leaving the darkness of their hurts, habits, and hang-ups behind. But small attendance doesn't mean the Lord isn't working in our ministry. Uh, the people who attend faithfully are successful in their recoveries by drawing upon God's help, and he is leading them to grow, to discover a meaning and a purpose for their lives that they never knew before. Uh, one participant was brought to tears last night as they testified how they were under, uh, spiritual attack, uh, when we didn't meet last week, and how the enemy tried to lure them back into temptation and sin. But they were able to overcome it when they reached out to their accountability partner to receive support. Our little support group is giving this person a place where they can experience hope, freedom, and victory. But I am always clear in pointing at— pointing to the Lord and our need to connect with Him for the abundance of love, peace, love, and joy that only He can bring. I encourage people to draw close to the Lord with personal, with a personal daily spiritual practice where we talk to God in prayer and learn more about him by reading and meditating on his word. When we ponder God's person, wisdom, and ways, he draws us further into his love and the purpose he has for us. Speaking of pondering, David Jeremiah's Turning Point devotional for today addresses this topic, so I'm, I'm sharing it today to encourage us to think what we're thinking about and to turn our thoughts, wills, and intentions toward the Lord. David Jeremiah writes, uh, pondering, and he shares Luke 2:19, which says, but Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then he writes, how are you doing when it comes to pondering? Psalm 107:43 says, let the one who is wise heed these things and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord. Psalm 111:2 says, Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them. The Virgin Mary teaches us something about pondering. When Gabriel appeared to Mary, he told her things she could never have imagined or expected. God surprised her with a plan for her life beyond anything she had dreamed. She quickly trusted the message and didn't hesitate to obey the Lord's commands. And more important— and more information came— as more important— as more information came to light, she pondered it all in her heart. God often surprises us with twists and turns we don't expect. All of them are for our benefit and usefulness, but we have to ponder his ways and submit to them in faith and obedience. Proverbs 4:26 says, ponder the path of your feet and let all your ways be established. Take time right now to prayerfully ponder God's wonderful pathway for your life. To strengthen faith, we must hear God's word and ponder God's doing, the marvelous works of God in our own day. SS Hough. So yeah, that last quote was by SS Hough. The rest was David Jeremiah. And, uh, I say amen. You know, when I came to faith in Jesus, I was a huge skeptic. I was wary of church culture, cultures, and fearful of cultish followings. I had doubts and wanted to be sure that I didn't just get emotional and put my faith in something that wasn't real. But my, my salvation was genuine because the Lord put it in my heart to read his word and to not only know what it says but to put it to the test by applying it to my life. So I read the word and pondered what it said and realized that not only was it true, but that it was living. God's Holy Spirit was with me in the reading and in the pondering of what it meant. Uh, God's real presence was with me as I chose to trust him and to do what his word encouraged me to do. Religion was out the window. A relationship with the living Lord and creator of the universe was established, and the more I sought to know him more, The more I learned about his ways and his love. So follow the Lord's path by reading and pondering his word. And when he encourages to move, step out in faith and see where he leads you. The road may not always be easy. It might be really hard at times as you choose to live a Christian life, but God's pathway is one you never have to walk alone. He is there, and he will bring others into your journey to keep you company. If you choose to follow him, you will know that God is real and his path leads to peace, love, and joy. So ponder his way and follow it. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crews. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on homosexuality, and today's verses are 2 Peter 2:6-10. The New International Version. The word of God says, if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless, for that righteous man living among them day by after day was tormented in his righteousness— righteous soul by the lawless deeds, he deeds he saw and heard. If this is so, if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the Day of Judgment. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Today's verses are the first of two passages of scripture that fall under the fourth point of Our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on homosexuality. And that fourth point is the example of Sodom and Gomorrah is given as a warning for people of all ages. God holds homosexuals fully accountable for their sin. Today's Bible verses point out that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is, is an example of the wrath of God that the ungodly will face if they don't repent, put their faith in Jesus. Authentic Christianity is demonstrated by transformed lives. If we claim Jesus as a Lord and Savior of our lives, there should be some evidence of a life change as the Lord leads us out of the darkness to represent his kingdom and his ways of light. Pondering Sodom and Gomorrah should cause homosexuals to repent of their sexual sins specifically, but it should also be a warning to all of us not to remain in the same darkened condition that the Lord saved us in. He accepts us as we are when he calls us, but he also calls us to come and follow him and to go and sin no more. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from According to Your Word— or no, Day by Day Along the Way by J.E. Adams. And, uh, it's a 365-day devotion and we're on day 20. And so, um, in that, uh, devotion, um, Adam shares a portion of Proverbs 11:20, which says, but his delight is in those who take integrity's way. And J.E. Adams writes, the first half of this contrasting proverb is, the crooked, crooked in heart are an abomination to Yahweh. God responds either with delight or disgust to a man's ways. He looks upon the heart and knows what is truly there. Crooked ways are taken by those whose hearts are crooked. He uses the strongest term of disgust in the Hebrew Bible to describe how he responds to crooked hearts, that they are abominable to him. The contrasting term delight is as strongly positive, is as strongly positive as its counterpart is negative. The contrast therefore is sharp. A man's ways either please God or cause him to abhor them. How does God look upon your ways, pilgrim of the way? How expressive is this anthropomorphic word delight. The picture conveyed is that of someone who is caught up in rapture. He may be shouting, singing, dancing, or otherwise expressing delight, but one thing is certain: he has responded with great joy to something of which he approves. Should you not seek such a response from God by walking the way of integrity? Yes, we should. And, uh, you know, it gives me great joy, uh, to contemplate the idea that following the Lord gives him great joy. He's not just like, okay, yeah, I see you there, 'Come on, let's move it.' He delights, um, he's delighted over the fact that we've decided to follow him into the life he has for us. And he doesn't drag us there, and he's not trying to beat us into submission. Um, he invites us, and apparently it fills his heart with delight to see it when we don't walk in the flesh and decide to live in the Spirit. But he's, you know, of He's, he's not happy when we, when we surrender to our lives of the flesh and sin. So that is why we ask every day, have you fully surrendered to God? Um, have you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and pondered his ways and decided to follow his ways? We encourage that because we under— we've experienced it ourselves. We've experienced the freedom from addiction to alcohol, drugs, sexual addiction. And we have great gains in our battle with food addiction. And he's given me peace from depression and anxiety and anger. You know, the life he's given me is wonderful. And when you follow the Lord, he'll not only help to clean you up, he'll also give you a purpose. And as I stated, part of my purpose is as the leader of Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church, which meets on Wednesdays at 6:30 PM. We'll be meeting the next two Wednesdays on the 11th and the 18th of December, but then we will be taking holidays off on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. However, you know, we encourage you to come because we'll be meeting every other Wednesday after that all the way through June sometime. So we'll be there. We'll leave the light on for you and encourage you to to walk in righteousness and to follow the Lord into the life he's got for you. Um, we also are doing a, a Christian men's support group online, um, uh, Mondays at 6:30 PM, uh, where we're doing a series called Grace for the Holidays as I'm leading the participants through the Grace course and, um, basically, um, encouraging them to walk by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit as they get closer and closer to Christmas. Um, we only meet for 3 more, 3 more Mondays before the big, uh, big holiday comes. Um, but, uh, if you wanted to join us, uh, the registration is still open. You can just go to mtforchrist.com to sign up, and you'd have access to all our other sessions. So you'd be able to check them out, um, check out the other lessons and, uh, our meetings that are recorded. Um, anyway, we move along, um, to Freedom, uh, to, to our next thing in the new year. We're doing Freedom in Christ course on Tuesday nights for men.. And the national coordinator just reached out and basically asked us to hype the new, new classes because registration ends on Monday or Tuesday. So sign up now, go to ficm.org, and you can sign up for the one I'm leading or one of the many other courses that are available there. And those are available for men or women, basically, or there's some co-ed classes basically available. So go to ficm.org, find the course that's right for you, and register today. Um, beyond that, whether or not you want to join a course or not, um, we always offer our, our teachings, uh, for free on our playlist page. Um, you'll be able to find our playlists of Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, Freedom in Christ, and our very own Celebrate Freedom Discipleship course. Along with many other Christian resources and other teachings by us. You can go to our YouTube playlist page, or you can go to mtforchrist.com and look for our YouTube— our page that has all our, our teachings listed. Um, so there's that. Um, beyond that, we always ask the question, are you empty for Christ too? And what does that mean exactly? It just means, are you following the Lord? Uh, have you surrendered to his will? And if the answer is yes, we say great, keep on walking and talking with God. And if not, we encourage you to pray because we know the Lord answers prayer and will lead you if you're willing to follow him. So that's why we pray every day, like right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for how you've used us to encourage other people to follow you. Um, you led us out of the darkness, Lord, and we're greatly, greatly, greatly, greatly blessed and thankful for all you've done in our lives, Lord. And, uh, we just, um, we're, we're gonna follow you until the end, uh, which there is no end, so we'll be with you, Lord. But we need your help. Um, can't do this by ourselves, Lord, and we're just asking for you to come alongside us and lead us in the way we should go today by opening our eyes to the things you want us to see and helping us to accomplish what you want us to accomplish. And Lord, we pray for anyone listening or reading today's message, um, that they'd be blessed too, that you'd come alongside them and their prayer requests and their walk of faith to help them, uh, because we all want to represent you, Lord, when we know who you are. And, um, we need a lot of help with that, Lord. So we, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.